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Any time my husband or any coworker complains of beginning to get computer related wrist discomfort I teach them and lead them through our wrist exercises and they are 100% effective 100% of the time if started right away.

The powerball - I've finally seen one of these. They seem pretty good and can train some coordination, too.

I've answered similar threads with this in the past. It's a REALLY old fashioned "western" exercise: wrist roll-ups. A stick, a bit of rope, and about 5 - 10 lb (2-5 kg, approx). Tie the rope to the weight, drill a hole through the stick (heavy dowel, bit of broken ice-hockey stick, or the handle end of a brokken bokken 8-), for example), pass the rope through the stick and tie it off so it can't fall back through. Make the rope long enough to reach the ground from your shoulder or chest height.

Roll the stick with your hands out in front of you until the weight is at the stick, roll it all the way back down and then up the other way. Repeat as long as you can. It's not jo suburi or bokken suburi but it will make your forearm muscles and associated connective tissue stronger.

Then STRETCH. Wait a while Stretch again.
Stretch on the days off between, too.

Don't worry about losing flexibility when you get bigger muscles - keep working on flexibility... Male olympic gymnastics competitors are very muscular and also very flexible - you need to work on the flexibility just as much on the strength.
Try it - you'll hate it.
Walter

In class we practiced a few wrist exercises prior to starting throwing and other techniques. I assume such wrist exercises are standard in an aikido cirriculum.

My question is, are there any other recommended wrist exercises, ones not done in an aikido class, that people practice that they've found useful?

Justin

hi justin, as i mentioned in my other reply, there are plenty of non aikido based drills you can do to strengthen you wrist including kettlebell and gripstik drills.

just make sure you warm up properly before using any of the above mentioned tools, espcially kettlebells as they are not for the faint hearted!

a good way to warm up is by wraping some light elastic around your wrists and then rotating them clockwise and anti-clockwise for a few seconds. when you then remove the elastic, the blood flow is restored quickly to the wrists and hands and should suffice as a good warm up.